The Battle of Arkansas Post was one of the largest battles in Arkansas with more than 30,000 Union troops overrunning approximately 5,000 Confederates at Fort Hindman.

Sarah Morris, smorris@stuttgartdailyleader.com

William Menard was 23 years old when he fought in the Battle of Arkansas Post.The Arkansas County native was a second lieutenant of the DeShae County Rangers attached to the 19th Arkansas Infantry. He would eventually evade escape to fight in future battles and to be a prominent citizen in the area.

“He was probably one of those that was missing at Arkansas Post,” Dyan Bohnert said of her third great uncle. “I figured since he lived around here, he knew a way out so he was not captured, wounded or killed.”

Bohnert’s second relative, a great uncle by marriage, wasn’t so lucky. The 17- to 20-year-old William Wallace was captured during the battle and then killed while attempting to escape the prisoners’ barge in Memphis. He left his about 14-year-old wife a widow.

The Battle of Arkansas Post was one of the largest battles in Arkansas with more than 30,000 Union troops overrunning approximately 5,000 Confederates at Fort Hindman.

“This war was fought by the youngest population of men ever,” Bohnert said. “There were very few men that were 50 or over. And as the war went on in the south especially the boys that were 12 or older were fighting.”

It is now 150 years later, and officials with the Arkansas Post National Memorial and Arkansas Post Museum State Park are preparing to commemorate the event with what is expected to be the largest Civil War event in both parks’ histories.

The Arkansas Post parks have teamed up with the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, the Grand Prairie Historical Society, the Gillett Civic Group to make the event possible, which kicks off with School Days on Thursday and Friday.

Park officials expect more than 700 students to attend to learn about the time period through different stations. It is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the memorial.

The stations will include talks on the mortician coffin maker, baseball, mail and artifacts, women who dressed as male soldiers, Civil War flags, artillery, food and medicine of the Civil War and the wounded veteran. There will also be storytellers and sideshows.

“I don’t want a child that might have had an ancestor down here to miss it,” volunteer Dyan Bohnert said, adding that there is still time to register. It is open to children being home schooled or to private and public schools. Call (870) 382-2017 for more details.

However, the main events are Saturday and Sunday when Confederate and Union camps open starting at 9 a.m. both days. A reenactment will occur each day on a 125-acre, privately owned field located next to the state park on the south side.

“This is a one-time event,” Bohnert, of the Friends of Arkansas Post National Memorial, said. “It has never happened before. It will never happen again. The child that is seven in 2013 would be 57 if it ever did.”

Bohnert said between 500 to 1,000 re-enactors are expected as well as at least 3,500 attendees. The public will be able to purchase items related to the Civil War time period at seven sutlers, which she described as “mini-Walmarts for the period.” These vendors will sale items such as clothing, toys, buttons, cookware, patterns and walking sticks.

These sutlers will be located at the state park, while four food vendors will be set up at the national park. Bohnert said there would also be additional storytellers and sideshows taking place throughout the two days.

According to the memorial, “all public parking will be in (the) town of Gillett at marked locations. All guests are asked to park in Gillett. Free shuttle service to the event will be provided thanks to grants from the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission and the Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative.”

There will be six stops in Gillett with pick-ups scheduled for every 15 to 20 minutes. The buses include three from the Dumas School District and two tour buses. PCCUA-DeWitt has donated two shuttle buses that will travel the two-and-a-half miles between the state park and the national park.

“We are trying to fix it where they don’t have to do any walking hardly at all,” Bohnert said.